8.22.2006

Any Color You Want, As Long As It's...

Ah, sweet absurdity. This one will make you laugh.

At work, the Diversity Committee has been sponsoring a little weekly contest all through August for "Multicultural Month." They show a picture of a celebrity or celebrities, who must be identified along with their cultural "heritage." They included a few hints about the country. Well. You would think that something called the "Diversity Commitee" would be hypersensitive to making sure that all of the major ethnic groups were represented in the contest. But you would be thinking wrong.

The first week, the celebrity was Angelina Jolie (French). The second week, the celebrity was Antonio Banderas (Spanish). At that point, I had to challenge the person running the contest for being Euro-centric and non-inclusive by writing up a little sign and putting it next to the entry box. "Where are the Africans? Where are the Asians? Where are the Antarcticans?" I asked, tongue firmly in cheek. I then demanded that Chilly Willy the penguin be chosen for Week 3, in order to acknowledge the aspirations of Antarctican-Americans.

"We demand more diversity in our multi-culturalism," I said. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Well, you'd think it would have been a teachable moment. Again, you'd think wrong. Instead of Chilly Willy, they chose three Italians. Now comes week four, and what do we get? The Irish! In four weeks, they have chosen people of European descent four times. And in this case, they've chosen four nationalities who might see each other at Sunday Mass at the local Catholic church. I don't know how the Polish got left out!

When Henry Ford came out with the Model T Ford, he said that customers could have their Model T in any color they wanted, as long as it was black. Apparently we can have our multiculturalism in any color we want, as long as it is white.

Where's Denzel Washington or Wesley Snipes? Can't a brother get a break? What about Yao Ming? Nobody of the Asian persuasion?

It's kind of like going to the ice cream shop and ordering scoops of four different types of vanilla ice cream. "I'll have vanilla, French vanilla, vanilla vanilla-ripple and vanilla fudge chunk." That's vanilla fudge, mind you.

And this is the friggin' "Diversity Committee" running this! The people running the program aren't with the program!